Women in Mental Health Leadership: Meet the Team Driving Change at Chateau
- Mar 20, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 27
Women make up roughly 70% of the mental health workforce, yet they hold fewer than 30% of executive roles at major behavioral health organizations. At Chateau Health & Wellness, that gap looks different. Five women lead major parts of clinical care, alumni support, and nursing operations at our Utah facility, and their work shapes recovery outcomes every day.
Women in mental health leadership close a real gap: they make up the majority of the field's frontline workforce but a minority of its executive roles. At Chateau Health & Wellness, five women lead clinical, nursing, and alumni programs that shape day-to-day care.
This piece started as a Women's History Month feature. It has stayed on our site because the story it tells does not expire with March. Below, you will meet the women behind Chateau's trauma-informed care, first responder support, and nursing leadership, learn why representation in this field matters for the people it serves, and find out how you can support women building careers in mental health and addiction recovery.
Table of Contents
Why Women in Mental Health Leadership Matters
Meet the Women Leading Care at Chateau
How Chateau Supports Women in Behavioral Health Careers
How to Support Women in Mental Health Leadership
When Professional Support Matters
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Women in Mental Health Leadership Matters
Women have shaped the mental health field since its earliest days, from Maria Montessori's work in education to the therapists, social workers, and nurses who now form the backbone of behavioral health care. The World Health Organization estimates that women hold close to 70% of jobs across the global health workforce, yet they remain concentrated in frontline and support roles rather than leadership positions.
That gap has consequences beyond fairness. Clients recovering from trauma, addiction, or a mental health crisis often connect faster with a provider who reflects their own lived experience or who has walked a similar path. A 2025 workforce brief from the Health Resources and Services Administration projects worsening shortages of counselors, psychiatrists, and social workers over the next decade, which makes retaining and promoting experienced clinicians, many of whom are women, a practical necessity for treatment centers, not just a values statement. SAMHSA tracks this same workforce across prevention, treatment, and recovery settings nationwide, and notes that shortages persist despite growing demand for care.
At Chateau, five women hold roles that put them in direct contact with clients every week: a primary therapist, a director of nursing, an alumni coordinator, an alumni program director, and a recovery-focused counselor. Their combined experience covers trauma therapy, high-acuity psychiatric nursing, first responder mental health, and long-term recovery support.
Meet the Women Leading Care at Chateau
Hannah Lima: Trauma Recovery Through Brainspotting
Hannah Lima is a Certified Substance Use Disorder Counselor and Certified Social Worker who moved to Utah from South Florida in 2017 to join the Chateau team. She specializes in Brainspotting, a trauma therapy that helps clients process deep-seated pain, alongside Yoga Nidra and music-based experiential therapy.
Hannah's own recovery from substance use and mental health challenges informs how she works with clients. She facilitates both group and individual sessions, connects families to education and resources, and helps clients transition into aftercare programs for long-term recovery. Outside of work, she recharges through music, yoga, and time with her dogs.
Maren Eberhard, LCSW: Trauma Therapy Rooted in Personal History
Maren Eberhard is a Primary Therapist with a Bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Utah and a Master's in Social Work from the University of Houston. She holds BCIA certification in Neurofeedback, a certificate in Traumatic Stress Studies from the Trauma Research Foundation, and training as a Daring Way™ Facilitator. She has also completed advanced work in Gottman Levels 1 and 2, Attachment-Based Family Therapy, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy.
Her commitment to trauma care is personal. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, lived with PTSD and depression without access to the specialized treatment options available today, and Maren built her career around providing what he could not access. Over 16 years, she has worked across residential treatment centers, hospital systems, and private practice, including time as a social worker in Epsom, England, and graduate study under researcher Brené Brown. She spoke about Accelerated Resolution Therapy on the No One Fights Alone podcast.
Daiana Martinez: Director of Nursing in High-Acuity Care
Daiana Martinez leads Chateau's nursing team, bringing a background in high-acuity psychiatric care and detox units from behavioral health hospitals. She is a Certified Trauma-Informed Care Instructor and an American Heart Association CPR/BLS Instructor, roles that put her at the center of both direct patient care and staff training.
Daiana volunteered at American Fork High School to share her own mental health experiences and prevention strategies with students. She integrates emotional, spiritual, and physical care into her leadership, and she stays connected to that balance through hiking, biking, and time outdoors. "You get what you put into the universe" is the philosophy she brings to both patient care and her own development, and it drives her continued work to expand Chateau's treatment programs.
Lisa Pascadlo: 30 Years in Law Enforcement, Now Supporting First Responders
Lisa Pascadlo spent 30 years as a law enforcement officer before joining Chateau as Alumni Coach. She holds a BS in Criminal Justice and built a Peer Support and Wellness program for her department, along with a culturally competent Employee Assistance Program and partnerships with specialized providers.
At Chateau, Lisa leads weekly support groups for first responders working through trauma, and she has testified before the Utah State Legislature on the effects of trauma exposure in emergency services. Her training spans Critical Incident Stress, Post-Traumatic Stress Injury, and suicide prevention. She was featured on the No One Fights Alone podcast discussing her transition from policing to advocacy. Outside of work, she hikes, hunts, fishes, and holds a 3rd-degree blue belt in jiu-jitsu.
Faith Morretti: 11 Years in Recovery, Now Guiding Others
Faith Morretti serves as Alumni Program Director at Chateau after building a background in Asian medicine and massage therapy. Her own 11-year recovery from PTSD and addiction shapes how she supports clients moving through critical transitions after treatment.
Faith leads weekly Dharma Recovery groups, guiding clients through meditation and Buddhist-based principles, and offers additional meditation resources online. She spends her free time painting, walking in nature, and with her two sons, and she brings that same sense of balance into her work with alumni.
How Chateau Supports Women in Behavioral Health Careers
Trauma-informed care sits at the center of Chateau's clinical model, and much of that expertise at Chateau comes from women who have built careers around it. Maren's trauma-focused therapy, Daiana's trauma-informed nursing certification, and Lisa's work with first responders processing critical incidents all feed into how Chateau treats dual diagnosis and co-occurring PTSD.
Career growth for women at Chateau follows a similar pattern across roles: clinical staff move from direct client work into supervision, training, and program leadership over time, the way Daiana moved from hospital nursing into directing Chateau's nursing department. Chateau also supports staff pursuing certifications in modalities like Brainspotting and trauma-informed care, since those credentials strengthen both individual careers and the team as a whole. Women considering a career in behavioral health can review current openings on Chateau's careers page.
This section is not a sales pitch. Real progress on gender balance in mental health leadership will take more than any one program, but treatment centers that promote and retain experienced women clinicians end up with stronger, more experienced care teams. That has direct value for clients, and it is one reason this pattern matters at Chateau specifically.
How to Support Women in Mental Health Leadership
A few concrete ways to back the kind of leadership represented above:
Share their work. Talk about women in mental health and addiction recovery through social media, community groups, or workplace newsletters.
Back mentorship programs. Volunteer with or fund organizations that connect women to mentors in behavioral health, especially early-career clinicians.
Push for equity in leadership decisions. Look at your own organization's leadership pipeline and raise the question if women are underrepresented at the top.
Fund training and certifications. Continuing education in specialized modalities, like the ones Hannah and Maren hold, often falls to the individual to pay for. Employer support changes that.
Protect time for self-care. Women in caregiving professions often put their own needs last. Workplace cultures that build in rest and support prevent burnout before it starts.
Organizations that support this work include the American Psychological Association's Women's Programs Office, the Women in Mental Health Network, and the National Association of Women in Mental Health.
When Professional Support Matters
Reading about trauma-informed care, dual diagnosis, or first responder mental health is useful, but it is not a substitute for treatment. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, unresolved trauma, or a mental health condition that has not improved with informal support and self-help, a residential program with clinical staff on-site can provide the structure that outpatient care sometimes cannot.
At Chateau Health & Wellness, we provide trauma-first residential treatment for adults 26 and older in a private, boutique setting in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does women's leadership matter in mental health and addiction treatment?
Women make up around 70% of the mental health workforce but hold fewer than 30% of executive roles, according to global health workforce data. Closing that gap keeps experienced clinicians in the field longer, which supports better continuity of care and stronger outcomes for clients working through trauma and addiction.
What roles do women hold on Chateau's clinical team?
Women at Chateau serve as a primary therapist, director of nursing, alumni coordinator, alumni program director, and recovery-focused counselor. Their combined expertise covers trauma therapy, Brainspotting, high-acuity psychiatric nursing, and first responder mental health support, touching nearly every stage of a client's care.
How can I support women in mental health leadership?
Share the work of women clinicians publicly, back mentorship and continuing-education programs, and advocate within your own organization for equitable leadership pipelines. Employers can also help by funding certifications, protecting reasonable caseloads, and building workplace cultures that catch burnout early instead of after a clinician leaves the field.
What is trauma-informed care, and how do Chateau's clinicians provide it?
Trauma-informed care means treatment that accounts for how past trauma affects a client's responses, safety, and trust. At Chateau, staff like Daiana Martinez hold formal trauma-informed care certification, and therapists like Maren Eberhard and Hannah Lima use trauma-focused modalities such as Brainspotting and Accelerated Resolution Therapy.
How does representation in leadership affect the quality of addiction recovery care?
Clients often build trust faster with clinicians who understand their experience firsthand, including staff with their own recovery history, like Hannah Lima and Faith Morretti. Diverse leadership also shapes program design, since clinicians who have lived through trauma or addiction bring that perspective into how care is structured.
Chateau Health & Wellness employs the trauma-informed clinicians featured in this article as part of its residential care team for adults 26 and older. Reach out through admissions or call (801) 877-1272 to ask about trauma therapy, dual diagnosis, or first responder support.
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About The Author
Zachary Wise is a Recovery Specialist at Chateau Health and Wellness
Where he helps individuals navigate the challenges of mental health and addiction recovery. With firsthand experience overcoming trauma, depression, anxiety, and PTSD, Zach combines over 8 years of professional expertise with personal insight to support lasting healing.
Since 2017, Zach has played a pivotal role at Chateau, working in case management, staff training, and program development.
